Promising Beginning? Evaluating Museum Mobile Phone Apps

Since 2009 museums have started introducing mobile apps in their range of interpretative media and visitor services. As mobile technology continues to develop and permeate all aspects of our life, and the capabilities of smart phones increase while they become more accessible and popular, new possibilities arise for cultural institutions to exploit these tools for communicating in new ways and promoting their exhibitions and programmes. The use of mobile apps opens up new channels of communication between the cultural institution and the user, which extent to his or her personal space and go beyond the boundaries of the museum’s walls. The paper presents a survey carried out of mobile apps designed by art or cultural historical museums and analyses the wider issues which are raised by the findings. It discusses, among others, the kind of use these apps were designed to fulfil (e.g. the majority are guided tours to the permanent collections or to temporary exhibitions), the layering of content,and the type of user interaction and involvement they support

Haptic Experience and the Design of Drawing Interfaces

Haptic feedback has the potential to enhance users’ sense of being engaged and creative in their artwork. Current work on providing haptic feedback in computer-based drawing applications has focused mainly on the realism of the haptic sensation rather than the users’ experience of that sensation in the context of their creative work. We present a study that focuses on user experience of three haptic drawing interfaces. These interfaces were based on two different haptic metaphors, one of which mimicked familiar drawing tools (such as pen, pencil or crayon on smooth or rough paper) and the other of which drew on abstract descriptors of haptic experience (roughness, stickiness, scratchiness and smoothness). It was found that users valued having control over the haptic sensation; that each metaphor was preferred by approximately half of the participants; and that the real world metaphor interface was considered more helpful than the abstract one, whereas the abstract interface was considered to better support creativity. This suggests that future interfaces for artistic work should have user-modifiable interaction styles for controlling the haptic sensation

Multi-Sensory Interaction for Blind and Visually Impaired People

This book conveyed the visual elements of artwork to the visually impaired through various sensory elements to open a new perspective for appreciating visual artwork. In addition, the technique of expressing a color code by integrating patterns, temperatures, scents, music, and vibrations was explored, and future research topics were presented. A holistic experience using multi-sensory interaction acquired by people with visual impairment was provided to convey the meaning and contents of the work through rich multi-sensory appreciation. A method that allows people with visual impairments to engage in artwork using a variety of senses, including touch, temperature, tactile pattern, and sound, helps them to appreciate artwork at a deeper level than can be achieved with hearing or touch alone. The development of such art appreciation aids for the visually impaired will ultimately improve their cultural enjoyment and strengthen their access to culture and the arts. The development of this new concept aids ultimately expands opportunities for the non-visually impaired as well as the visually impaired to enjoy works of art and breaks down the boundaries between the disabled and the non-disabled in the field of culture and arts through continuous efforts to enhance accessibility. In addition, the developed multi-sensory expression and delivery tool can be used as an educational tool to increase product and artwork accessibility and usability through multi-modal interaction. Training the multi-sensory experiences introduced in this book may lead to more vivid visual imageries or seeing with the mind’s eye

The Kidney: An Interactive tutorial

The intention of this thesis is to create an interactive, multi-media educational module. The subject is the form and function of the human kidney. This module is intended as an introductory overview to the physical description of the kidney, its tissues, functions, and its relationships with other major organs within the human body. The end product could be conceived of as a chapter in an encyclopedia set of similar such chapters. Target audiences could be, but are not limited to, secondary education and college undergraduate health science students, doctors\u27 patients, family of patients, and /or caregivers of individuals with kidney related health issues. This program is intended for use in the context of an interactive educational computer station, a web-based educational site, for distance learning in a virtual classroom setting and as a CD /ROM that could be purchased outright or used as reference material from a public library. The overarching design of the program is developed around four major premises. The first of these is the interactivity design. The interactive model is designed for return usage and accommodates familiarization with the program on the part of the user. First time usage navigation is prompted by the software. However, usage is fully interactive and allows for extensive self-direction by repeat users. The intention is to give the viewer maximum freedom of aided visual exploration. The second premise is the division of the intended subject matter into manageable domains. The subjects of the human kidney covered in the program include general orientation within the body, gross anatomy, internal structures, histology and function. A third organizational factor in the development of this program involves visual aesthetics and stylistic concerns. The goal was not to simplify, but rather to clarify. My intention was to concentrate on the use of still, detailed, representational, volumetric renderings of structure and form. I sought to deliberately edit the visual subject matter in the virtual environment in such a way as to promote focus. Use was made of three-dimensional graphic modeling programs to emphasize structural relationships. Cross-sectional imagery from the Virtual Human project of the National Library of Medicine is used as a graphic corollary to my own illustrations to invite greater realism in the viewer\u27s experience of the subject. A final concern in the development of this program is the choice of medium. The project is conceived of as a chance to make in-depth exploration into the use of electronic art mediums. The reality of my own experience is that the development of this program has drawn from, and touched upon, virtually every aspect of my education within the Master of Fine Arts in Medical Illustration program at Rochester Institute of Technology. For me, this represents the most successful aspect of my endeavor within the program

Supporting the creation of hybrid museum experiences

This paper presents the evolution of a tool to support the rapid prototyping of hybrid museum experiences by domain professionals. The developed tool uses visual markers to associate digital resources with physical artefacts. We present the iterative development of the tool through a user centred design process and demonstrate its use by domain experts to realise two distinct hybrid exhibits. The process of design and refinement of the tool highlights the need to adopt an experience oriented approach allowing authors to think in terms of the physical and digital “things” that comprise a hybrid experience rather than in terms of the underlying technical components